I am a Senior Lecturer in Political Geography at Oxford Brookes University, UK. However, I am originally from Northern Norway, having grown up across the three northernmost counties, Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark – something which no doubt has influenced my interest in Arctic research. Following my undergraduate studies (BA International Relations) at RMIT University in Australia and postgraduate at the University of Edinburgh (MSc International Relations), I worked as a trainee for the North Norway European Office in Brussels, Belgium in 2012-13. It was the latter experience, in combination with my studies and personal background, that led me to question how ideas of “Arctic identity” influence policy-makers – a topic I was fortunate to get to study in my PhD at Durham University (completed in 2017).
My research interests centre on the intersection of, on the one hand, Arctic geopolitics, statecraft, and sovereignty; and on the other, identities, homelands, and (national) narratives. In my PhD project I looked specifically at how state personnel from the three Arctic states Canada, Iceland, and Norway articulate their own sense of Arctic identity and how this may influence political behaviour. This research has led to several journal articles and book chapters (please see below), as well as conference presentations, op-eds, and blog posts.
I am still intrigued by these questions and aim to continue exploring how identity narratives’ emotional and rhetorical power influence practices of Arctic geopolitics. Currently, I am focusing on the three interrelated topics of Indigenous inclusion, of Russian-Norwegian people-to-people narratives, and so-called language-games of political performance.
If you want to learn more about my work, please do get in touch. I can be reached via email (imedby@brookes.ac.uk), on Twitter (@IngridAgnete), or you can find my staff profile at Oxford Brookes University’s websites, here: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/templates/pages/staff.aspx?wid=&op=full&uid=p0085191
Some of my work:
Medby, I.A. (2018). Articulating State identity: ‘Peopling’ the Arctic State. Political Geography 62: 116-125. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.10.008
Bruun, J.M. & Medby, I.A. (2014). Theorising the Thaw: Geopolitics in a Changing Arctic. Geography Compass 8(12): 915–929. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gec3.12189
Medby, I.A. (2017). Why an Indigenous fancy dress gaffe by Norway’s finance minister was no laughing matter. The Conversation [online]. Available from: https://theconversation.com/why-an-indigenous-fancy-dress-gaffe-by-norways-finance-minister-was-no-laughing-matter-86096
Medby, I.A. (2018). Commentary: Difficult dialogues may matter the most. High North News [online]. Available from: http://www.highnorthnews.com/commentary-difficult-dialogues-may-matter-the-most/
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 